Police Planning and Community Relations

Criminal Justice Leadership Strategies and Practices

The Role of Planning in Criminal Justice Organizations

In general, planning is one of the five essential functions of organizational management, along with organizing, staffing, coordinating and controlling (Safir, 2003). In some respects, planning is the most important of the five functions of management because it involves aspects of all of the other management functions. That is also the case within criminal justice organizations. More specifically, planning in criminal justice relates to strategic, operational and tactical-level leadership decision making (Safir, 2003).

At the strategic level, planning allows organizational management to shape the long-term mission and objectives of the organization and ensure that the short-term goals of the agency support those long-term missions and objectives. Typically, strategic planning involves analyzing the needs of the community being served by the organization in conjunction with applicable local and state requirements and consideration of federal issues. While state and local law enforcement agencies operate largely independent of federal oversight by virtue of state sovereignty under the 10th Constitutional Amendment (Schmalleger, 2010), they must nevertheless, often incorporate practical considerations involving the federal government within their planning.

That is simply because maintaining eligibility for federal money in the form of grants may be directly dependent on voluntary compliance with federal guidelines or strategic goals. In this area, the consequences of inadequate or ineffective planning can potentially undermine the organizations entire mission by jeopardizing the availability of significant federal funds capable of supporting the organization's programs and initiatives.

At the operational level, planning allows organizational management to implement the specific programs and initiatives that best meet the goals of the organization. Criminal justice organization managers and leaders must assess their available resources, including their budgets, human resources, and physical facilities and physical assets and consider how to best allocate all of those resources to maximize the ability of the organization to pursue and meet all of its stated objectives in fulfilling its long-term mission. Naturally, the role of planning takes on particular importance in this area, because it requires accurately projecting the costs of programs at both macro and micro levels.

At the tactical level, planning allows organizational leaders to deploy the resources of the organization so as to best meet the needs of the programs and initiatives being pursued by the organization (Burnett, 2007). In practical terms, tactical planning necessarily involves significant levels of assignment and delegation; however, in principle, managers and leaders within criminal justice organizations must maintain a comprehensive awareness of all of the programs implemented by the organization and they must lead the management team in charge of all of those programs.

Finally, leaders and managers within criminal justice organizations must incorporate planning functions within organizational training at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels as well. Specifically, it is up to organizational leaders to determine and shape the values it emphasizes in its candidates and employees in many respects (Safir, 2003). In turn, Those values and standards must be reflected in the initial and in-service training of its employees. At the tactical level, leaders must decide how to best pursue the training of organizational employees by planning specific training philosophies, methods and practices (Safir, 2003).

The Role of Community Relations in Criminal Justice Organizations

At their core, criminal justice organizations exist to serve the communities in which they are situated. In some respects, criminal justice functions do not depend on input from the civilian community, particularly as they relate to tactical issues and. To a lesser extent, to operational issues. However, it is difficult to imagine a local or state criminal justice organization ignoring the expressed needs of the surrounding civilian community in which it serves.

In general, the community relations function is the primary way through which local and state law enforcement agencies maintain contact with the civilian members of the community outside of enforcement-related contacts. Community relations typically involves the assignment of a dedicated Community Affairs or Community Services unit within larger police agencies and a Community Affairs or Community Service Officer within smaller agencies (Schmalleger, 2010). In principal, they perform the same types of functions except on a different scale (Schmalleger, 2010).

Police community relations encompasses everything from police athletic youth leagues, mentoring programs, police "explorer" or "junior officers" programs, at-risk youth counseling services, community policing, and senior citizen awareness and crime prevention programs (Ellison, 2006). Some of the more novel mechanisms for promoting positive community relations include child safety seat installation programs that provide free child safety seat evaluation, installation, and adjustment. Such programs serve a dual purpose: first, they promote safety by ensuring that children are properly secured within their parents' or caretakers' vehicles; second, they provide an opportunity for citizens and police officers to interact in a positive environment (Safir, 2003). These programs fulfill an important role because most citizens would otherwise only come into contact with on-duty police officers in negative situations such as during emergencies or in connection with being the subject of a traffic enforcement stop.